If fact, most of them will be contributors next season. Players like Jessie Warren, Carsyn Gordon, Dani Morgan and Anna Shelnutt will all be around for at least one more year.

The team has plenty of contributors, but only one captain — and this is her last season in an FSU uniform.

Her voice is the one that’s heard above all others one game day.

Senior second baseman Ellie Cooper doesn’t have the flashiest numbers. She’s batting .298 with 13 extra-base hits in a lineup full of standouts. Still, ask any player on the team – or head coach Lonni Alameda, for that matter – and they’ll tell you exactly how valuable Cooper is.

The team will need its senior leader this weekend as it takes on LSU in the best-of-three Tallahassee Super Regional at JoAnne Graf Field. Game 1 is Friday at 5 p.m.

“It’s just a lot of fun,” Cooper said. “I’m so happy these young ones are successful. It’s just what I want. I love when my teammates are successful. I don’t need the limelight or anything like that. I just love watching my teammates succeed.

“We put so much work in and they work so hard for me and I work so hard for them, when they do succeed, it makes me really happy.”

Over the cheers and sounds of the game at JoAnne Graf Field, it’s pretty easy to hear Cooper. She’s always the one, right before every pitch, shouting, “I’m right behind you!”

It doesn’t matter which FSU pitcher is in the circle, either.

“She does a great job of slowing the game down,” redshirt senior pitcher Jessica Burroughs said.

“There are those moments when things get a little bit sticky and just a little chaotic. She does a great job of knowing the right time to bring everyone in and have that conversation, just to take a breath and regroup.

“Sometimes you need that as a team. Momentum starts to build and if you let it get too high, it can shut the game down. She does a great job of recognizing those moments and giving a good pep talk. She does that on and off the field.”

In some ways, she’s like a coach. She holds her teammates accountable and preaches the lifestyle that is FSU softball.

FSU’s Ellie Cooper gets the force out a second base against Georgia’s Maeve McGuire and looks to throw to first at JoAnne Graf Field on Saturday, May 20, 2017.(Photo: Joe Rondone/Democrat)

Cooper credits Alameda for instilling leadership abilities into her.

“Just watching her, seeing what she does, seeing how much she cares for us, seeing how much she puts into the game – I just want to give her back what she’s given me,” Cooper said about Alameda.

Alameda said she knows Cooper wants to be a coach someday. Alameda knew of Cooper’s coaching aspirations when the latter was still in high school at Rockwood Summit in Fenton, Mo.

In some ways, the 22-year-old senior already acts like someone running the show from behind the scenes.

“She wants to run a program someday and she’s going to be awesome at it,” Alameda said. “Her ability to go above and beyond and do so many things to learn about how you manage people and get the most out of people has been second-to-none of what I’ve been around.

“When you don’t hear Ellie, something’s going wrong. She always talks. She knows how to talk off the field in the locker room, when they’re out at dinner – she knows how to communicate with people to get the most out of them.”

It could be a close game or a blowout that’ll be wrapped up in five innings – Cooper keeps her energy level up.

FSU’s Ellie Cooper is out on the force at home plate as Georgia catcher Mahlena O'Neal snags the ball during the Seminoles 8-5 win at JoAnne Graf Field on Sunday, May 21, 2017.(Photo: Joe Rondone/Democrat)

“I was always pretty vocal,” Cooper said. “I’ve always been a leader on my teams. But I found a lot more in my leadership abilities when I came here because of (Alameda). She’s found things in me that I never would have found on my own. She’s definitely made me the leader I am today.”

Cooper said she knows this is her last go around with Florida State. Of course, she said she wants to end her career with a Women’s College World Series championship at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.

The title wouldn’t be for her, though. It would be for the players who’ve traveled to Oklahoma City with her and for the coach who brought the team together.

“Coach Alameda, literally, I feel like I owe her my life,” Cooper said. “She gives everything to this program. She gives everything to each person that’s in it, whether it’s staff, players, the field crew, it’s crazy what she gives to this program.

“No one deserves a national championship more than she does. Kind of selfishly, I want to be on the team that does it for her for her first time.”